Every step of a turn

I thought this would be a good place to discuss/list every step that you would take in a turn in Magic: The Gathering.

I have seen both new and experienced players skip over some of these steps, or even do them in the wrong order when there are cards in play that are affected by the order of things.

One of these steps that many players seem to rush into is the Combat Step. Now, I know many people when they feel they have their chance to swing with their big nasty Creature or their army of goblins, they want to rush into it and attack someone right when they get their chance. I've done it, and it has bitten me in the ass.

And from that experience I have learned, I have learned to slow things down. When I want to attack someone (or everyone), I do whats called "Declaring my Attack Step". What this does is, it gives people a chance to respond by tapping down my attacker with something like Gideon's Lawkeeper so that I am unable to attack with whatever creature it targets.

An instance where this would be important is when playing with creatures with Exalted. When you declare your attack, the exalted bonuses haven't been added yet, because you aren't attacking yet. It gives your opponents the chance to respond by Bolting one of the creatures before it gets too big to deal with.

For reference this is a guide for every part of a turn, click the spoilers for each section.

Beginning Phase

Spoiler:

a. Untap step You untap all your tapped permanents.On the first turn of the game, you don't have any permanents, so you just skip this step.No one can cast spells or activate abilities during this step.

b. Upkeep step This part of the turn is mentioned on a number of cards, such as Suspend Cards and Cumulative Upkeep Cards.If something is supposed to happen just once per turn, right at the beginning, an ability will trigger "at the beginning of your upkeep."Players can cast instants and activate abilities.

c. Draw step You draw a card from your library.(The player who goes first skips the draw step on his or her first turn to make up for the advantage of going first. This only applies to 1vs1 games.)Players can then cast instants and activate abilities.Being able to cast spells here is useful for cards like Vendilion Clique. Don't be surprised if you see this happen in the tribal tournament!

First Main Phase (Also known as Precombat Main Phase)

Spoiler:

You can cast any number of sorceries, instants, creatures, artifacts, enchantments, and planeswalkers, and you can activate abilities.You can play a land during this phase, but remember that you can play only one land during your turn.Your opponent can cast instants and activate abilities.

b. Declare attackers step You decide which, if any, of your untapped creatures will attack, and which player or planeswalker they will attack, then they do so.This taps the attacking creatures.Players can then cast instants and activate abilities.

c. Declare blockers step Your opponent decides which, if any, of his or her untapped creatures will block your attacking creatures, then they do so.If multiple creatures block a single attacker, you order the blockers to show which is first in line for damage, which is second, and so on.Players can then cast instants and activate abilities.

d. Combat damage step Each attacking or blocking creature that's still on the battlefield assigns its combat damage to the defending player (if it's attacking that player and wasn't blocked), to a planeswalker (if it's attacking that planeswalker and wasn't blocked), to the creature or creatures blocking it, or to the creature it's blocking.If an attacking creature is blocked by multiple creatures, you divide its combat damage among them by assigning at least enough damage to the first blocking creature in line to destroy it before assigning damage to the next one in line, and so on.Once players decide how the creatures they control will deal their combat damage, the damage is all dealt at the same time.Players can then cast instants and activate abilities.

e. End of combat step Players can cast instants and activate abilities.

Second Main Phase (Also known as Post Combat Main Phase)

Spoiler:

Your second main phase is just like your first main phase.You can cast every type of spell and activate abilities, but your opponent can only cast instants and activate abilities.You can play a land during this phase if you didn't during your first main phase.Sometimes, it is good to save casting your creature spell for the turn until this phase, as during combat your opponent could have cast something like Rout to save themselves from death, which, if you cast your creature during the first main phase, would have died along with every other creature. Unless that creature can benefit you during the combat of that turn, or had other duties to fill which had to be done before combat.

Ending Phase

Spoiler:

a. End step Abilities that trigger "at the beginning of your end step" go on the stack.Players can cast instants and activate abilities.

b. Cleanup step If you have more than seven cards in your hand, choose and discard cards until you have only seven.Next, all damage on creatures is removed and all "until end of turn" effects end.No one can cast instants or activate abilities unless an ability triggers during this step.

I hope this post was helpful. Anything posted is open for discussion, and feel free to post any questions.

Well, that took a million years

Last edited by Havens on Tue Nov 08, 2011 3:48 pm; edited 1 time in total (Reason for editing : Fixing typos)

Phasing is keyworded to apply during the untap step, before cards are untapped. There is no priority. No triggers are affected by permanents phasing in or out.

You'd find that in the keywords section though, not the phases/steps as it technically isn't a phase, step, or additional process. It just happens, much in the same way morph creatures are turned face up. It's called a special ability, and not many of them exist in magic.

Phasing is keyworded to apply during the untap step, before cards are untapped. There is no priority. No triggers are affected by permanents phasing in or out.

Leaving Phasing out of the untap step section was part of the same reason I left Banding out of the blockers step, it isn't always going to be in every turn of every game and as stated above they are keywords. There was no need to add confusion to the basic turn.

I may make a post about it another time though, after a bit of research.

Besides, have you ever seen anyone using phasing or banding other than us and aiden?